A Story of Tragedy & Triumph: Bryce’s Blankie

I wanted to share this story with you because it has been all-consuming these past few weeks. The weekend before Christmas my family and I went to Discovery Kingdom for a day of fun. Reece had officially started his Christmas vacation and we were all ready to have a great time. We arrived and were met with a huge line of cars trying to get into the parking lot. I had my husband go ahead and take the two boys while I waited and parked. Thirty minutes later I was finally parked and got the stroller out and loaded it with jackets and snacks and other essentials. Bryce’s blankie was among those essential items.

Bryce loved to feel the texture of his blankie.

I walked into the park and met up with the kids and hubby and had the most fantastic day. The park was empty so there were no lines and we were able to see and do any and everything we wanted to. It started to get cold in the evening and so we took off and headed towards the parking lot. I asked my husband to put Bryce’s blankie on him because I was worried that he would be cold with the wind. “We don’t have his blanket,” he said. I argued with him because I could vividly remember picking it up and putting it in the stroller. That’s when the sick feeling in my stomach started. He was so sure it would be in the car when we got there. It wasn’t.

Professional pictures w/ blankie.

I don’t know about you but my children are blankie boys. Reece is growing out of it a little bit but his blankie still has the power to right almost any wrong and soothe his fears and his hurts. Bryce is younger and is even more dependent on his blankie than Reece. Bryce started crying for his blankie and the next hour was a complete blur. I ran back to the park and checked in the lost and found. I searched the park – even looked in garbage cans. I ran back to the parking lot and was asking the attendants if they had seen a green blankie. Nobody had seen anything. I was in tears. Bryce was in tears. It was AWFUL.

Bryce wrapped Pluto up in his blankie at Disneyland.

The whole way home I could hear Bryce whimpering in the back. It was gut-wrenching. He kept asking, “Where me green blankie?” “Where me light green blankie?” As if clarifying that it was his “light” green blankie would help me to locate it. We went back and forth the whole drive home trying to figure out where and when it was lost and came up with nothing. We never saw it the whole day and didn’t realize it was missing until we were leaving.

Blankie was always with him for naps.

To make matters worse, this was not one of the three blankets I had made for him during my pregnancy. I made him three, beautiful, soft blankies and as a baby he chose this light green one that my cousin Janelle had purchased at a shop somewhere and mailed to me. I didn’t know what to do. Plans started forming in my mind but I had to exhaust all other options first. I put a call into my Grandma and had her contact Janelle to see if she could tell us anything about where she had bough the blankie at – nothing. I was so depressed. I think I cried for hours that first night and Bryce did the same. He slept terrible that night. And the next night. And the next. It was heartbreaking to see and my husband told me that no three year-old should have to go that kind of traumatic event. This may seem to be an exaggeration but I can tell you it is not. It was just so sad.

This blankie of his had been through everything with Bryce and had the scars to prove it. Over the past year or so I had to patch it three different times and it had a hole that needed to be patched. I decided that I was going to make him one – as close to the original as I could. To make a long story short (or a little less long!), after several failed attempts at choosing the right yarn – I found it! Bryce’s blankie was very thick and there were no gaps or holes like most crocheted blankets or afghans. It was a chevron pattern but one solid color. I pulled up pictures of him holding his blankie and zoomed in to see how it was made. Lucky for me I have crocheted a lot and I figured out what to do. It took several tries but with Bryce’s help I have succeeded! I took Bryce to the store with me to pick out the yarn, I showed him every day what I was working on. I called this new blankie “blankie” and I let him hold it.

I wanted him to start feeling some attachment to the blankie and was hoping and praying that this new blankie would be an adequate replacement for his lost one. The week before Christmas I spent hours each day working on the blankie. It required two threads of yarn (pulling from two different skeins) and single crochets so it was a slow process. Many posts went unposted but I had a plan and a mission and every day that I saw my baby looking for his blankie and asking for it fueled my drive to complete this as soon as possible.

These patches are identical to the ones I made forhis original blankie since I had leftover yarn.

I wasn’t able to have it for him by Christmas but it was done a few days after. I was so nervous! Would he accept this new blankie as his own? Would he love it? After all that work I hoped so but more importantly I just want him to have his blankie again. That final day I sewed on two patches that were made out of the same yarn that I had made the original patches of on his original blankie. That did the trick.

At Discovery Kingdom on Sunday.

The first few days I had to remind him to get blankie out of bed and to take blankie with him. But by day three, he was asking for blankie and carrying him everywhere. I was so relieved! This past weekend we visited Discovery Kingdom again – this time with his new blankie. Trust me, vigilant is too mild of a term to describe our watch over blankie. It truly brought tears to my eyes to see how happy Bryce was with his new blankie and that it was truly just “blankie” to him.

My blankie boys this past weekend with their friend.

I made this pattern up to look just like Bryce’s blankie so if anyone is interested in the pattern I would be more than happy to share. I’m just beyond thrilled that things are back to normal and my wrists won’t be aching every night from hours of crocheting :)

Bryce with his new blankie today.

Bryce’s other love is his puppy dog and I am so thankful we had that over these past few weeks. What do your kids use to soothe themselves?

Comments

When my kids were little they were attached to the cloth diapers we used to burp the kids when they were babies. Luckily I had many of them so I could always switch them out and it allowed me to launder them regularly. What a story you have. Thanks for sharing at DIYbyDesign.

I LOVE this post. I feel his pain! When I was about 7 years old I left my blankie at a hotel in AZ… I cried the whole 4 hours home. My mom called the hotel and they mailed it next day back to me. (I love those people!) When my mom was cleaning her house about 8 years ago she found my original blankie, well what was left of it. She folded it up and put it in a frame for me. I still have a blanket to this day… well, several, just in case!

Poor fellow, what a blessing that you could replicate (very, very close) and he accepted! My daughter has Cheeto the white bear that Papa gave her the day she was born, she is 6 and Cheeto goes everywhere with us. She was lost once for a week when I also happened to be gone out of town and I hear it was the most terrible week of her life. I think I even cried.

I always looked forward to the cute pictures of my son with his blankie or lovey, but he is almost 2 now and completely unattached to any of his toys beyond routine playing with them. WHen I read these accounts though I’m a bit relieved that we don’t have to worry about the trauma of losing a lovey!

I’m so glad you were able to reproduce Bryce’s blankie. He is a well loved little boy!

My 21 month old, Maggie, has “baa-baa” her sheep, whom she is very attached to. When he went missing a month ago, she cried his name for hours. It was a very difficult few days until we got him back. My wonderful husband spent hours playing with Maggie and a stuffed puppy until he had her reasonably convinced that it would do as a substitute, at least at night. My mother in law went to every toy store in town looking for an identical Baa-baa. She finally found a store in New York that had a bunch of them, and now we have a back-up on hand just in case!

My daughter is 9 and still likes to sleep with her “B”. She had so many cute homemade blankets but picked a simple store bought (very thin) thermal cotton blanket that I had used to swaddle her. She had a double that she would never touch so it is literally tied together in shreds.

Both of my kids (4 and 2) love their blankets. It is difficult to get the blankets away from them to wash regulary, I can’t imagine if they were lost and never found again. Thankfully we have never had an incident like this! Great job on the new blanket. I especially like how you added the patches!

@[email protected] Forever House Thanks Aubrey! It has been difficult and I can assure you that you do not want this to happen to you – so sad! I have the same issue with washing. Bryce and Reece will watch their blankets in the washing machine until I have to close the lid. Then they don’t want to wait for them to dry…always an ordeal! I have to sneak them away while they’re playing sometimes :) Thanks for stopping by!

Oh Trish. That’s my worst nightmare. My 7 year old daughter still has her original blankie with head missing and nearly in tatters and I think her world will come to an end if she ever loses it. I really feel for your little boy. Your little guys are so cute. I’m so glad I found your blog. I’ll be looking forward to linking up to your party and seeing what you do from day to day. Thanks again for linking up at Thriving on Thursdays.

I’m 47 but mine was named “Lamby”. I came across a piece of what looked like a fleece rag in my father’s glove box of his car when I was about 12, and as soon as I felt it, I said, “It’s LAMBY!” I ran inside to ask him where he got it, cuz I was sure it was my blankie.

He said, my Mom had cut off a small piece of it to send to her then-husband in the hospital for comfort (my folks were divorced) and he wasn’t sure how HE had it, but it belonged to her hubby from many years before.

I COULD KICK MYSELF THAT I DON’T STILL HAVE THAT SCRAP OF FABRIC. I dont’ know what happened to it when I grew up.

Thanks for sharing :)

Visiting from Chic On A Shoestring party,~Suzanne in NW IL (whycuzican)

What a great post! I mean, I know it was hard for your son, but you totally were super mom and saved the day! I love how you let him pick the yarn and made him a part of the process. He will treasure this way more than a store bought blankie!

OMG – that’s the sweetest story. My daughter has a bee blankie that we quickly realized was an integral part of her comfort process. I thought I was smart and bought an extra when she was about a year old . . . she just calls it “other bee” and it sits alone, unloved, on the corner of her bed. Dang, and I thought I was so smart!

My now 5 1/2 year old girl had a stuffed rabbit that she was attached to from about one year up until last summer. We got very busy for a few days in a row and he didn’t move from the bed. As the days went past, that was the end of the attachment. I moved him to the bottom of the toy box in case she wanted it back. He was still in there when I did the after Christmas purge. I’ll keep him, but the attachement went away so easily I was surprised.

my daughter also has many many blankets, but she has chosen her favorite. I have heard of these type stories of loss & thought, i don’t want to have to experience that i’ll go & buy her another one as a backup. of course…target has discontinued this blanket and when i went online the only thing i found was a woman who was searching for this same blanket for the very same reason. needless to say we have made rules to protect this blanket. It doesnt come out of the house except on overnight trips & then we are cautious. in case anyone wants to sell one upon reading this it is a small pink thin fleece type blanket with a bird on it from target.

oh man…my boys are blankie boys too, especially my oldest and he’s 7–we have store boughts and once he latched onto one, i was able to buy 3 more of the same one…they’ve been sewn and patched multiple times. he’ll probably take them to college! (he only now uses a blankie at nite, but it’s still such a comfort item to him, and when he was little it was a must to accompany him anywhere, so i know how you felt! kudos to you for making him a new one!!!

@cameronhomemade I can totally relate to your story! Bryce has a puppy from IKEA and me being such a smart mommy bought him another one which he calls “brother puppy” and it sits, untouched on his bed. Oh well! At least we tried!

Oh my goodness, I was in a panic just reading this! My daughter has a little stuffed (Beanie Baby like) kitty cat, that she has loved since she was 8 weeks old. It goes everywhere! Kitty is like my second child, seriously! LOLOL!

Anyway, you are so awesome to have made him a new blankie. You get Mom of the Year!

Believe it or not my oldest son (35 years old) STILL sleeps with his blankie…it’s in his pillow case. This one is not the original either, it is the one he would take in a pinch. We lost the original on a camping trip when he was 8. It comes out of the pillow case and around his head when he is stressed about something. This is a big macho guy, outdoorsman, hunter, fisherman, who owns a Landscaping business and is not shy about who knows. Also we lost my grandson’s blankie last year when he was 2 at a park looking at lights and seeing Santa. It must have fallen out of the car. Heartbreaking!

I still sleep with my “blankie” and I am 31 years old! My husband said it had to go away when we got married but I just can’t do it. It’s not hurting anybody if I sleep with it so it stays. I have a 6 month old son and I wonder if he’ll have an attachment to a “blankie” At some point I guess I will have to put mine away. It would be really weird to have a mom with her “blankie” and a son with his! Lol : ) That will be a sad day for me….

I still sleep with my “blankie” and I am 31 years old! My husband said it had to go away when we got married but I just can’t do it. It’s not hurting anybody if I sleep with it so it stays. I have a 6 month old son and I wonder if he’ll have an attachment to a “blankie” At some point I guess I will have to put mine away. It would be really weird to have a mom with her “blankie” and a son with his! Lol : ) That will be a sad day for me….

I still sleep with my “blankie” and I am 31 years old! My husband said it had to go away when we got married but I just can’t do it. It’s not hurting anybody if I sleep with it so it stays. I have a 6 month old son and I wonder if he’ll have an attachment to a “blankie” At some point I guess I will have to put mine away. It would be really weird to have a mom with her “blankie” and a son with his! Lol : ) That will be a sad day for me….

OH My!!! I totally know how you must have felt… We were traveling in TN. and had visited a Museum and our son had his VERY SPECIAL sock dog with him… Well when we left the Museum it was no longer with him… Talk about PANIC and DREAD… My husband took him and our other son back inside and retraced all there steps… While I sat in the car with the girls and waited.. Thankfully someone had found it and gave it to one of the MANY counters…. It came VERY close to being LOST forever… He still has it today and remembers how very sad and scared he was over the possibility of loosing his friend.. So glad you were able to work on a new one.. Love the added patches..

Two days after our daughter’s birth, my husband bought her ( to my eyes)the ugliest, frilliest pink and green dress. I put it on her ONE time, then placed it in her closet and forgot about it. When she was three years old,we were moving from New York to Rhode Island, and were packing her room. She saw the dress, and fell in LOVE!!! Of course, by then she couldn’t WEAR the thing, but she could carry it. And she did…everywhere.It was always within reach. She would panic if it was forgotten. We moved from Rhode Island to Lago Patria, Italy a year later. While we were there we visited many cities in many countries, and the dress was there. We were reassigned to Tampa, Florida, but went on vacation in The Netherlands and Germany before the packers were due. While in Berlin, we visited the zoo, and somehow the dress was mislaid. We did not discover it’s being lost until we were on the train to Amsterdam. She was eight, so the dress only came out at bedtime, or when she was especially tired and needed it.When we got to the hotel in Amsterdam, we asked if they might call Berlin Zoo and ask if it had been turned in to lost and found. Unbelievably, it had;that ugly little dress was mailed to our house in Italy,via the hotel in Amsterdam, and made it home in time for our flight to Florida. Even at eight, she cried for that lovey. She’s a 21 year college senior, and that dress is STILL with her.She made a special pouch for it;it still goes everywhere. We thought she would out-grow it, but the comfort it still brings is ongoing.

I hate to admit this in public and all, but I will anyway … my 15-y-o daughter *still* has a stuffed skunk from when she was 5, and she still sleeps with it – even at sleepaway camp in front of all the other 15-y-olds. His name is Wiffy (I know, right?!?!) and he is extremely special. Wiffy once got lost at a restaurant nearly two hours from our house. We were frantic (like you) but a call to my nephew, who called his friend who lived wonderfully near the restaurant and whose wife happened to be coming to our town in a few days … and Wiffy came home. So yep … know how you feel :)

When my daughter was 2 we were helping a friend pack as he was moving to PA. My sweet daughter thought she would help. She put her beloved binkie in one of the boxes. It was shipped by time we realized it. I was so thankful that Target still sold that blanket. I know that she was aware that it wasn’t her Binkie. It worked but she was never as attached. :(I felt so bad. She is now 26 and trust me. She survived. I almost didn’t though!

Love this story! I gave up my blankie in stages. By Kindergarten I stopped taking it out of bed. In 9th grade I stopped sleeping with it and I put it in a drawer. And after college graduation I finally tossed it out. However, in college my comforter & duvet became the new Woobie. Which may be worse! I am now 40 and still need to wrap up in a blanket to sleep.

This is such a sweet story and I can relate. :) Each of my daughters lost their blankets once. One was left at a relatives. Didn’t sleep that night and met my cousin in a mall parking lot 1/2 between each of out homes to get the blanket the next morning. My youngest’s blankie must have fallen out of the car when we went to the movies. It wasn’t until we got home that we realized it was missing. I drove 30 mins back to the movie theater late at night. The place was closed and it was 19 degrees outside, but I was relieved to see a pile of white fabric in the parking lot. My girls are now 21 and 24 and still have their blankies. They took them to college and now my oldest is in the Peace Corps and took it to Africa with her. When she recently came home for a visit the blankie was totally gross, but my daughter didn’t care as she was glad she had a little bit of comfort being so far away form home. It took a few washings to get it all nice a clean again.

I still have my blankie from when I was little. I put it in my pillowcase when I left for college and it is still there after 10 years of marriage :) We have 3 boys but only the youngest is really attached to his blankie. The older 2 have a few that they rotate through. We do not have a back-up so we take extra precautions. He is not allowed to take it out to a public place for fear of the story you shared. I’m so glad your son is enjoying his new blankie. What a special gift he has from you!

My 25 year old daughter still has the two blankies from when she was born and my 16 year old son sleeps with what is left of his baby blanket. It’s so tattered and threadbare and he walks around the house with it wrapped around his neck like a scarf! He hides it from his friends when they come over and never travels with it because he’s afraid he will lose it. Even big kids love their blankies!

I’m happy he loves his new blankie. I was really attached to my 3 blankies (yeah, I had a pink, a yellow, and a blue one) and slept with them until I was 22 and pregnant with my first baby. They magically disappeared one night (my parents or sister finally had enough and threw them out). I wish I still had them, even though everyone else thought they were gross and weird. Now only my daughter sleeps with a blankie, but luckily she’s not picky. Any fleece blanket will do, and she even carried her fleece robe around for a few days and called it blankie.

I know it may sound silly but I always tried to get my kids attached to something…a soother, a blankie or a teddie but none of them have ever been obsessed with anything other than the boob. So when I saw this I thought it was the cutest.

all my 8 kids had blankets! I was worried about the attatchment with my first few..why? who knows..I realized by my 5th they would not be taking their blanket to high school so let them have the comfort!!I am your newest follower..pls follow back if you can!

My youngest absolutely was our blankie boy. The other 2, I used pacifiers first one, didn’t need one, he was just a natural soother. 2nd child took to his pacifier so much that I couldn’t get it from her….she still has a tough time soothing herself. We did finally trade in all pacifiers when she was 4….we tried several times, but she couldn’t do it. So 3rd child, I knew I couldn’t give a pacifier, cuz it was sooo bad with #2. We gave him a blanket my gma made for my first child (she had started it before she died), it had tassles on it aroudn the edges. Carson fell in love with it. He actually used the tassles to suck on, and fall asleep. He became attached to his blanket. Well when he was 3, it started unraveling….and I’m not a sewer, so I had to eventually toss it, cuz it was dangerous for him to use. We tried and tried, to get thru it, but after a week of zero sleep, I put a note out to anyone and everyone to see if anyone had a tassle crocheted blanket. One of my friend did in Indianopolis, she mailed it. Even though it was different yarn/feel, he took to it. This lasted till Thanksgiving this year. He was six, and still loving it, and sucking on it…however it was falling apart again. So we had to retire it. He was ready for it, and made it, no problems this time.

I feel your pain! Our oldest daughter lost her “silky” when she insisted on putting it in her backpack during Kindergarten. She needed it at the babysitters after school. Never found it and many whining nights later she adjusted. Even after months, she would say I wish I had my silky. I did too! Our oldest son carried a stuffed cow until he boxed it up when he was about 8 years old. Our youngest son carried the thermal weave blankets and chewed on the edges. Gross! We have about 3 of them that look like a rat has chewed on them stored in our basement. Our youngest daughter is 10 and has Down Syndrome. She became attached to a Taggie. It is a small fleece blanket that has ribbon ‘tags’ sewn to the edges. She also had a stuffed cat that was well love. She took them to school and placed them in a drawer of my desk everyday. After school, she held them and sucked her thumb while watching tv when I worked in my class. One day, we got home and she did not have them. I did not panic because she had a Taggie book as a back up. The next day we looked and I asked the janitor. She said yes, I saw them in your garbage yesterday but thought you meant to throw them out. I was ready to go dumpster diving, but they were already gone. I decided that losing them might help her stop thumb sucking. My husband got on-line and ordered her a new cat and Taggie without my knowledge. She was so happy when they came in the mail. We leave them at home in the bed now. What we won’t do to keep kids happy!

I realize that this is a really old post, but I just found your blog through Pinterest.

I’m so glad you were able to replace his lovie without rejection. As a nanny, I know how hard that can be. Every kid I’ve taken care of past the age of 18 months has had some sort of lovie. The last family I worked for had a daughter. When she was 12 months or so, she had one of those blankets with a bear head on it that she took EVERYWHERE. It never left her sight except when I asked her to keep it at home or in the car so it wouldn’t get lost. Around 14 months, they went to visit their great grandmother and took her bear blanket with her. When they got back, it was no where to be found. She wouldn’t sleep longer than 20 minutes at a time for weeks. We tore that house upside down, the family called their family members, etc. No luck. To make matters worse, no one makes the type of blanket she had. Every store carried the blankets with the heads in the middle, but her bear’s head was on the corner. We attempted to get her to accept one of the versions they had in the stores, but to no avail.

Months went by, and during that time she got rather attached to a different blanket (which also pulled a short disappearing act, but thankfully was returned within a day or two when her grandmother discovered it had been left on the RV). We had long given up hope on ever finding it again and figured she probably wouldn’t remember it. Yet, when she was 23 months old, and her family was getting ready to go on vacation, she wandered over to her brother’s suitcase and opened the outer pocket. Reaching in, she pulled out her bear blanket, held it to her cheek and wandered away, as if she had known it was there the whole time but had no way of communicating the fact with us.

Love the story had a grandaughter she lost her binkie ( a satin square with embroidery design on it ) at the hospital during a visit, and lost it , Sadly it ws never found , but nana made another as close as she could to the original these where put in easter baskets with easter designs so we had lots of binkies , she is 7 now and if she is sick wants her binkie, ,,,,,,,,,, I Loved the pattern , where is it posted at Please. thank you for sharing the story I loved how u did the patches, just like on the first one ,

I feel your pain. When my oldest was little he carried his Snoopy around with him all the time. It had blue ears and a blue tail. My son would fix it just right that while holding the ear it had to touch his nose just right while sucking on his finger. My mom’s friend took him to my cousin’s Jiffy Lube and he lost Snoopy. Have no clue what ever happened to him. My cousin called every customer who was in during the time my son was there to see if he tossed him in a car. I think he dropped him in a barrel of old oil. I searched TJ Maxx to locate another one. Never did I had bought it up in NJ and even asked family to look for me since I was in FL. No luck. I did find a snoopy with the black ears but he never took to that. He found a new love in Trains which were much easier to replace when needed.